A woman who thought she had a cricked neck was left paralysed after suffering a spinal stroke.
Caroline Hall believed she had pulled a muscle and felt intense pain shortly after bending over to pick something off the ground at work.
The pain was so unbearable, the 38-year-old, from Bolton, Lancashire, was rushed to hospital where she fell into a coma – and woke up unable to feel anything below her neck.
Attached to a ventilator as her lungs had collapsed, doctors broke the news she had suffered a spinal stroke
This is where blood flow to the spine is cut off, damaging the nerves and causing paralysis.
Caroline Hall, 38, thought a pain in her neck was a pulled muscle. She was horrified when she woke up the next day completely paralysed after suffering a spinal stroke (pictured right during her recovery)
Miss Hall now needs a wheelchair or an electric scooter to move around. She has regained the movement in the right side of her body but her left side is still completely paralysed
She was moved to a special spinal injury unit where she re-learned to breathe and use a wheelchair.
Now, she has re-gained movement in the right side of her body and says using a scooter has given her some of her independence back.
Miss Hall, an RSPCA inspector first felt a pain in her neck in January 2012, but believed it was a pulled muscle.
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‘I just thought I had pulled a muscle and even told a colleague it was nothing that a glass of wine and a hot bath couldn’t fix,’ she said.
The next day she noticed the pain again while out on a job at a farm in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester – and thought she had a ‘cricked neck’.
But when she bent down to take a rug off a horse in a stable, she felt sharp, intense pain in the left hand side of her neck.
‘I continued working, thinking it was nothing to worry about, but half an hour later I was feeling very unwell, drained and a bit out of it,’ she said.
WHAT IS A SPINAL STROKE?
Normally, a stroke is caused either by a blockage to the blood supply to the brain, or a bleed from a weakened blood vessel supplying the brain.
With a spinal stroke, the same principles apply, but the blockage or bleed affects the spinal cord.
Stretching from the base of the brain to the small of the back, the spinal cord is a key part of the body’s central nervous system, which transmits instructions from the brain to the rest of the body.
Like the brain, the cord needs a constant blood supply to provide oxygen and nutrients.
If it is halted, the nerves quickly become damaged and some die.
As a result, these stop sending messages from the brain to the muscles – which muscles this affects depends on where the stroke occurs.
If a person has a stroke around the mid-section of their spinal cord, they may suffer paralysis in their legs, but everything above this will be unaffected.
But a stroke around the neck section of the spinal cord could affect the muscles in the arms.
The most common cause of spinal strokes, as with brain strokes, is a build-up of cholesterol plaque in an artery wall, which then blocks it.
Alternatively, small vessels supplying the spine rupture, due to abnormalities of the vessel walls or malformations of the vessels, says Tony Rudd, professor of stroke medicine at London’s King’s College Hospital.
Of the 152,000 strokes in the UK each year, spinal strokes make up about 1.25 per cent, says the Stroke Association.
For some, ‘a spinal stroke can prove fatal towards the neck, as it can have a devastating impact on nerves to muscles, which control breathing and the diaphragm’, says Professor Rudd.
Most spinal stroke victims will survive, but are often left with life-long disabilities.
‘Unfortunately, the prognosis for spinal stroke patients is not great,’ says Professor Rudd.
Her colleague told her to go and sit down in the van, but when she did, she began to feel intense pain.
She said: ‘Suddenly I got the most horrific pain in the world in my neck. I had to put my fist in my mouth to stop me screaming.
‘I watched as my left arm slid down my body and the left side of my body drooped.
‘I had no movement in that side and I knew I’d had a stroke from watching adverts on TV.’
Miss Hall’s colleague, who had heard her muffled screams, phoned for an ambulance immediately.
‘I was really scared but thought I’d be OK if I just stayed strong until the ambulance arrived,’ Miss Hall said.
After being rushed to hospital terrified she was going to die, Miss Hall (left, before her stroke, and right, during recovery) fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator after her lungs collapsed
Moved to a special spinal injury unit, Miss Hall had to relearn to breathe again (pictured during recovery). Three weeks after, she was thrilled to move her finger for the first time
She was taken to the Tameside General Hospital and kept in the resuscitation area as, on the way, she had started having breathing difficulties.
Terrified, she believed she was going to die.
Before long, she became ‘locked in’ – meaning she could hear and see everything around her but could not speak or move – for hours.
‘Doctors were telling me to blink and move my toes but I couldn’t. My friends were there begging me to stay alive,’ she said.
Miss Hall fell into a coma that night and was transferred to the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.
Before her injury the RSPCA inspector was completely fit and healthy
When she woke up the next morning in intensive care, she was totally paralysed from the neck down.
Her lungs had stopped working and so she was attached to a ventilator to help her breathe.
Two MRI scans confirmed that she had suffered a spinal stroke, a rare condition in which blood flow to the spine is interrupted, potentially leading to paralysis.
The scans also showed she had a birth defect which she had never known about.
The blood vessels around her spine had not joined up properly and one of them had burst, causing the damage to her spinal cord.
Doctors were not sure what the long term effects would be, or whether the paralysis would be permanent.
Three weeks later, Miss Hall managed to move a finger after being ‘bullied into it’ by her friend Vicki McDonald.
She describes the moment as ‘brilliant’, as it gave her hope that she may fully regain her movement.
In February 2012, she was moved to the Spinal Injury Centre at the Southport and Ormskirk Hospital, where she underwent physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
She had to relearn how to breathe independently, and was taught to use an electric wheelchair.
She said: ‘I sobbed when I first sat in it. I couldn’t believe that this was where life had taken me.’
Over the next couple of months, to her delight – Miss Hall slowly regained movement in the right side of her body.
However to this day she still experiences weakness and cannot feel temperature or pain.
She says getting the scooter has ‘changed her life’ and made her much more independent. ‘I’m so lucky that I’m here and have the best family and friends anyone could ask for,’ she said
Her left side is still paralysed and she is unable to feel her limbs, or identify where they are.
For example, she can’t tell whether her leg is under or over the bed sheets.
She left hospital in August 2012 and used a manual wheelchair for a couple of years.
Then in August 2014 she was given a scooter by Aspire, a charity which supports people with spinal injuries.
She says getting the scooter has ‘changed her life’ and made her much more independent.
‘I’m so lucky that I’m here and have the best family and friends anyone could ask for,’ she said.
‘There have been some low and terrible times but I had such good support during those times that I made it through.’
For information on Aspire, visit www.aspirechannelswim.co.uk